Northern Lights: A Due South Novel

Chapter 3: A Sea of Scarlet

The St. Michael's Anglican Church in Bear Falls, Yukon Territory, was a log A-frame with a peaked roof to help snow slide off it in the winter. Plate-glass windows nestled under the peak and around the double doors, facing east to fill the church with light and views of the towering, snow-capped Saint Elias Mountains. Ten wooden steps led up to the entrance. Elizabeth wasn't ready to climb them.

"He wasn't working alone. Someone sent for him," she muttered to distract herself.

"Would that be the courier you arrested west of Dawson?"

Chief Superintendent Benton Fraser, commanding officer of the Yukon Division of the RCMP, sat on the front of the red crew cab pickup truck. His navy blue overcoat hung open despite the chill. Beneath it, he wore the famous red serge: a scarlet tunic with a high collar, breeches with a yellow stripe up the outside seam, and knee-high leather boots. Service stars and command badges denoted his four decades in the Force, as did the dark blue collar and cuffs of his commissioned officer's uniform. As befit his rank, he wore the mushroom-shaped black and yellow forage cap instead of the flat-brimmed brown campaign hat Elizabeth wore with her constable's uniform.

Fraser missed that hat.

Elizabeth had spent the two-hour drive to Bear Falls telling her father about arresting the gun runner west of Dawson. More details had come in since the arrest. Elizabeth had seized a fake Alberta driver's license from him, the same one used to rent the SUV in Whitehorse, but his prints matched Lester B. Pearson, last known address Indianapolis, Indiana. He carried no passport, and there was no record of Pearson ever crossing the border.

The case had filled the time and distracted her from thinking about Tamara's death.

"You're right about the courier. No criminal would go all that way unless he knew there was a customer waiting. He must have flown into the Yukon." Fraser stroked his chin with a gloved hand.

"But he got greedy and spoiled the plan. He couldn't wait for his return flight. He didn't even sell his entire shipment," Elizabeth said.

"Yet he didn't just abandon the guns. Why?" Fraser asked in a tone reminiscent of an RCMP academy instructor.

"Maybe he panicked."

"Or he planned to send his accomplices to retrieve them."

Elizabeth went quiet again. She stared at the ground ahead of them, where Montgomery and Ogilvie, Fraser's wolf, wrestled in the snow. The guests arriving for the memorial gave the wolves a wide berth. The entire Black clan was attending, from Grandmother Mary, to Tamara's parents Jim and Paula, to Clara's young children. Elizabeth nodded as they passed. Cousin Mike had played canoe wars with Tamara and Elizabeth on Kluane Lake—they had each dumped the other multiple times. Uncle Robert had taught the girls how to gut a fish. Aunt Bessie, Robert's wife, ran the gas station.

Brendan Corrigan arrived alone and on foot. Tamara had been dating Brendan on and off since her return to Bear Falls, but had not mentioned him to Elizabeth since Christmas. Brendan entered the lot from the far side with the hood of his parka pulled over his head, avoiding Tamara's relatives and Elizabeth's gaze. Still, at a gangly six foot four the half-Tutchone, half-Irish young man was impossible to miss, especially where his arms stuck out of his too-short sleeves.

There were strangers, too. The new silver mine had brought both jobs and newcomers. Three stocky, bearded white men with Newfoundland accents and puffy down parkas filed into the church. A thin Asian man wearing a slim-fitting coat from the latest expensive outdoor brand followed them.

A portly man in his 40s stepped out of a brand-new BMW SUV wearing shiny dress shoes, fine leather gloves, and a knee-length wool coat better suited for downtown Toronto. His hands shook as he locked the car door, dropping his keys in the snow. When he struggled to bend over, his young female passenger picked them up and handed them to him with a pitying smile.